Virgin Australia was the country’s most punctual and reliable major airline[1] in December according to on-time-performance (OTP) data released by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) today.
The airline completed 99.4% of scheduled domestic flights in December (a daily average of nearly 400 flights) and achieved a departure OTP rate of 74.7%. Notably, there were four consecutive days between Christmas and New Year when no flights were cancelled.
December was also a record month for passenger movements, with more than 1.925 million guests flown across Virgin Australia’s domestic and international network – the highest number of passengers flown on Virgin Australia services of any December in its 24-year history[2].
Commentary attributable to Virgin Australia Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka:
“The stakes are never higher than during the important summer holiday period, so we are really pleased to have been the most reliable major Australian airline in December,” Ms Hrdlicka said.
“We knew it was going to be an extremely busy time and we were prepared with a number of additional resilience measures, including more team members at airports and spare aircraft on standby.
“What is also great is that our on-time performance improved by 18.5 percentage points from December 2023 to December 2024. Over the past twelve months we have been working hard to improve our operational performance, and it is wonderful to see these positive results, especially at such an important time of the year.
“We have been particularly focused on completing our schedule, and for 11 of 12 months in 2024 we recorded a higher completion rate than our major competitor. When unexpected disruption occurs, for example due to weather, we will prioritise completing a flight even if it means a delay is necessary. When challenges arise, our aim remains to get our guests to their destination on the day they have chosen to travel.
“I am incredibly proud of the entire Virgin Australia team for their efforts to ensure our guests arrive at their destinations safely and promptly, and that they have a wonderful experience along the way.”
Virgin Australia has continued to accommodate Rex customers free of charge following the airline suspending jet operations in July 2024. More than 135,000 Rex customers have been rebooked free of charge, with over 125,000 of them having already travelled.
[1] Major Australian airlines include Virgin Australia, Qantas and Jetstar.
[2] Excludes Tigerair passenger data from when Virgin Australia Group operated Tigerair.
